HYPERICACE^:. (ST. JOHN'S-WORT FAMILY.) 49 



short. Plants with a resinous juice (of acrid and balsamic qualities), 

 dotted with pellucid or dark glands, usually smooth. Leaves mostly ses- 

 sile. Flowers solitary or cymose. 



Synopsis* 



1. ASCYRUM. Sepals 4, very unequal. Petals 4, oblique, convolute, yellow. 



2. HYPERICUM. Sepals 5. Petals 5, oblique, convolute, yellow. 



3. ELODEA. Sepals 5. Petals 5, equal-sided, imbricated, naked, purplish. Glands 3. 



1. ASCYRUM, L. ST. PETER'S-WORT. 



Sepals 4 ; the 2 outer very broad and leaf-like ; the inner much smaller. Pet- 

 als 4, oblique, very deciduous, convolute in the bud. Stamens numerous ; the 

 filaments distinct and scarcely in clusters. Pod strictly 1-cellcd, 2-4-valved. 

 Low, rather shrubby plants, with pale black-dotted leaves, and nearly solitary 

 pale yellow flowers. (Name from a, without, and anvpos, roughness, being very 

 smooth plants.) 



1. A. stitns, Michx. (ST. PETER'S-WORT.) Stem simple or branched 

 above, 2-edged, l-2 high, stout; leaves oval or oblong, somewhat clasping, thick- 

 ish ; petals obovate ; styles 3-4. Pine' barrens, Long Island, New Jersey, and 

 southward. July, Aug. Flowers showy, almost sessile: outer sepals round- 

 heart-shaped. 



2. A. Crnx-Andreae, L. (Si. ANDREW'S CROSS.) Low, much 

 branched and decumbent ; leaves narrowly obovate-oblong, contracted at the base, 

 thin; petals linear-oblong; styles 2, very short; pod flat. Pine barrens, New 1 

 Jersey to Kentucky, and southward. July -Sept. Petals scarcely exceeding 

 the outer sepals, approaching each other in pairs over them, in the form of a St. 

 Andrew's cross. 



2. HYPERICUM, L. ST. JOHN'S-WORT. 



Sepals 5, somewhat equal. Petals 5, oblique, convolute in the bud. Stamens 

 numerous or few, united or clustered in 3 - 5 parcels : no interposed glands. 

 Pod 1- or 3-5-cclled. Seeds usually cylindrical. Herbs o'r shrubs, with 

 cymose yellow flowers. (An ancient name, of obscure origin. ) 



4 1. Stamens very numerous, 5-adelphous : pod 5- (rarely 6-7-) celled, with the pia- 

 centce turned far back into the cells: herbaceous, perennial : flowers very large. 

 1. H. pyraifiidatiim, Ait. (GREAT ST. JOHN'S-WORT.) Branches 

 2 - 4-angled ; leaves ovate-oblong, partly clasping ; petals narrowly obovate. not 

 deciduous until after they wither; stigmas capitate. Banks of rivers, rare, W, 

 New England to ."Wisconsin and Illinois. July. Plant 3 - 5 high. Leaves 

 2' -3' long. Petals 1' long. Pod f long, conical. 



2. Stamens very numerous : pod 3 - 5-celled by the union of the placentce, which are 



seed-bearing on the outer face. 



* Shrubs, leafy to the top : styles (at first united) and cells of the pod 3 or 5 ; calyx 

 leafy, spreading : stamens scarcely at all clustered. 



